Greeley-Evans District 6 looks to close East Memorial Elementary, send students to Bella Romero

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Greeley-Evans School District 6 appears on track to make a major change to two east-Greeley elementary schools for the 2014-15 school year.

The board was advised Friday that district administrators have made plans to close East Memorial Elementary and consolidate it into Bella Romero Elementary, creating a two-campus K-8 facility that would better serve students in that area, district officials said.

“Much more brain power will be focused on one group of students,” said Superintendent Ranelle Lang .

The school will be organized so kindergarten through third grade would be located at what is now East Memorial, 614 E. 20th St., and fourth through eighth grade will be at the current Bella, 1400 E. 20th St.

The schools’ current principals, Justin Ungeheuer of East Memorial and Jon Cooney of Bella, will remain as co-principals at their current locations.

There was no one reason for the decision, said Theresa Myers , director of communications for the district. Myers said many factors played into the consolidation.

“Romero was not built to accommodate the K-8 we promised everybody it would become,” she said. “And the $500,000 cost for a new modular classroom to make it happen is half our capital construction budget. We just don’t have the money.”

Myers said the unknown of how many students a new charter school in the area will pull from the two schools also played a role.

Salida del Sol will locate just south of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Weld County on 1st Avenue near 22nd Street.

East and Bella have a combined enrollment of just more than 1,200, but more than 700 of those are at Bella.

The consolidation will help alleviate the overcrowding at Bella, something the district tried to do this year by redrawing boundaries. But parents drawn out of Bella opted to enroll their children at the school anyway, and were given preference because they had previously attended Bella.

Bella was chosen to be the school consolidated into because it was already on a path to become a K-8. It is a K-7 this year.

Myers said it just made more sense to keep Bella Romero, which is named for a former principal in the district.

East Memorial was named in memory of a bus/train crash decades ago that killed dozens of school children.

Myers said all the items in place now that memorialize those children will remain in place and the district plans to find an additional way to keep that memory alive.

Wayne Eads, chief operations officer for the district, said there is no budgetary savings to the consolidation. It just made sense to prepare for the future and still give parents what they were promised.

There could be big staffing implications, however.

Myers said about 80 teachers, who were notified of the proposal Friday after school, will be without jobs at the end of this year under the district’s master contract with the Greeley Education Association and mutual consent laws of Colorado.

However, all are free to reapply for jobs at the new school and the majority are expected to be rehired. Myers said an interview team created by Ungeheuer and Cooney will make all hiring decisions.

Because the schools sit just a few blocks apart on the east side of U.S. 85, district officials believe the concept will give all parents in the area the option of a K-8 that they haven’t had before while allowing better management of enrollment.

Nancy Devine, chief academic officer for the district, said there are many benefits to the new structure that are new to the Greeley district.

“To have a K-3 enables Justin to really focus on early literacy skills and early math skills,” Devine said. “ ... We really wanted to keep third grade there so there would be an achievement piece and make sure all students are proficient before they leave the school. It will also help with more rounds of targeted instruction. Where we have three teachers now in each grade level to differentiate, we will have as many as six.”

The final decision to consolidate the schools is still up to the board, and it will host two informational meetings for the public to get feedback. Spanish interpreters will be available at both. Those meetings are scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday at East Memorial and 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at Bella Romero.

A letter explaining the proposal was mailed to parents Friday.

Roger Dewitt, president of the school board, said the idea is understandable considering the opening of a new charter school in the same area. He said he hopes people understand there was no ulterior motive in this.

“We try to keep far away from cutting personnel in our district,” he said. “But, unfortunately, it is a side-effect of a quarter of our city being in charters. This is painful, but it’s not elective surgery.”

He was also excited, however, for the new opportunity it brings the district.

“We are on the cutting edge of education,” he said.

“We try to keep far away from cutting personnel in our district. But, unfortunately, it is a side-effect of a quarter of our city being in charters. This is painful, but it’s not elective surgery. — Roger DeWitt, president of the Greeley-Evans School District 6 School Board